The Benefits and Problems of Electronic Medical Records Systems

In a recent Baltimore County pharmacy misfill injury blog, our attorneys discussed a tragic medical error that caused the death of an premature infant, after a pharmacy technician accidentally entered the wrong information into the computer, causing the intravenous solution prepared buy an automated machine to contain a lethal dose of sodium chloride. This pharmacy error has reportedly brought the issue of electronic medical health records safety concerns back into the forefront of patient safety.

As our attorneys have reported in a related Hartford County medication error injury blog, the medical industry is shifting toward electronic medical records and computerized systems that make medical processes and prescription orders automatic, in an effort to reduce pharmacy error injury or wrongful death.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the federal government is also currently helping the digital shift by giving $23 billion in incentives to healthcare providers who purchase the electronic systems, with the hopes that these medical technologies will help increase access to patients’ medical information, help healthcare providers communicate better with each other, help doctors to see test results more quickly, and implement electronic safeguards to remind doctors about recommended medical practices, or to alert them about harmful drug interactions before prescribing.

With all of the benefits that come with electronic medical records and computerized systems, potential problems are also taking place, like crashing of hospital computers, or software bugs that interfere with important data, or even delete information from computerized records. Computerized systems also reportedly can produce data about patients that is disorganized or difficult to read, especially when a doctor is quickly looking for critical patient information.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Dr. Mark Frisse, professor of biomedical informatics, stated that although systems don’t always communicate in an optimum way together, this should not be an excuse to stop moving forward toward electronic healthcare, as compared with the paper-based world, where the pharmacy errors were far more prevalent.

In December of last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration acknowledged getting 370 reports of problems with health information technology since January of 2008, but these numbers are reportedly low, as such reports are not voluntary.

Disclaimer:
While all of the cases identified in the Lebowitz & Mzhen, LLC website under Our Successes are cases that Lebowitz & Mzhen, LLC has handled for its clients, Lebowitz & Mzhen, LLC does not represent any of the clients in cases mentioned in our blog. Our law firm is reporting on current events that will likely be of interest to our readers. The content provided is not intended as legal advice.